Using ENVI to teach USGIF Core Geospatial Competencies

The emergence and growth of geospatial technology over the past few decades has given rise to an industry that is driving demand at colleges and universities across the US. More academic disciplines have been teaching GIS, remote sensing and other geospatial curriculum as a result. As more companies, industries and disciplines incorporate geosolutions and geodata into their practices, it is increasingly important to ensure that the workforce has a common level of training. In the world of Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), which primarily focuses on geospatial technologies for the defense and intelligence community but could encompass many other communities, the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) has taken the step to address the need for a standard level of ability for a practitioner.

USGIF was formed in 2004, and was established by leading intelligence groups with the purpose of bringing together government, academia,industry and professional organizations to advance geospatial intelligence tradecraft as it relates to national security. On the academic side, an accreditation program was established to provide assurance that universities and colleges teaching GEOINT principals are able to meet competency and standards to serve government and industry. A certificate is given to students completing the accredited program which serves as an indicator of a certain level of proficiency in Geospatial Intelligence. To date eight schools have received USGIF Accreditation.

NV5 Geospatial is a software company that develops industry leading tools for the geospatial and GEOINT community. ENVI is a premier software solution for extracting information from geospatial imagery, which provides accurate, scientifically-based procedures that follow the most recent advances in image processing technology, and is well known as a leader in spectral image analysis.

The USGIF accreditation requires a level of competency in curriculum which they breakdown into tiers. These tiers address necessary components of geospatial technology such as imagery, data and the software to analyze it. ENVI, the platform for image analysis, is a leading tool for exploiting imagery to aid GEOINT analysts in creating products and solving problems. Specifically ENVI is a component to be utilized in portions of the Core Geospatial Competencies Tier 4 and Tier 5. (see below) 

Core Geospatial Competencies (Tier 4)

#	Name	Solution	Link/Reference
CORE 3	Remotely Sensed Imagery	ENVI products create the premier geospatial software foundation to process and analyze imagery so you have the information you need to make more informed decisions. These products are designed to be used by everyone from GIS professionals to image analysts and image scientist by working with data from many different sensors, both passive and active.	ENVI Products
CORE 4	Geospatial Information Systems	ENVI offers a unique opportunity for GIS-centric users. We have a strong relationship with ESRI and offer a full suite of ENVI Spectral Analysis Tools within the ArcMap interface. Furthermore you can easily push files to the ArcMap interface and also save files to an ArcGIS database from the ENVI interface.	Interoperability
CORE 5	Spatial Analysis	ENVI offers several tools for making geometric measurements. Our various analytic workflows help to process a wide array of imagery efficiently and correctly. The tools offered through ENVI range from basic analytical operations to highly advanced spectral analysis.
CORE 6	Quantitative Information Communication	The symbolization tools available in ENVI products make creating a final product extremely easy for the end-user. Text annotations, legends, north arrows and raster color slices allow the user to make a final product that will be easy to create and even easier to understand when handed off to the CO. We also offer tools to push your map to a PowerPoint slide as well as a geographically enabled PDF.	D&I Dissemination

Core Geospatial Competencies (Tier 4)

#	Name	Solution	Link/Reference
GEOINT 2	Remote Sens­ing for GEOINT	We support all commonly used GEOINT-relevant satellites as well as ground-based, fixed-wing and UAV-based sensors. We have developed a system that allows full support capabilities for full motion video through our new product known as JAGWIRE. Our tools work extremely well across all sensor and data types, but certain tools and workflows have been developed with either HSI or MSI data-types in mind. Quickly create actionable intelligence with ENVI Tactical Hyperspectral Operational Resource (THOR) Tools, a set of automated hyperspectral workflows devel­oped in concert with the DoD to support ex­ploitation and analysis hyperspectral imagery.	THOR Workflow SPEAR Workflow
GEOINT 4	GEOINT Data	ENVI products use the intelligent streaming technology and compression capabilities of the JPEG 2000 ISO standard format for time-critical situations where actionable intelligence is mandatory. Our standards-based technology offers high-performance and secure delivery and management for your geospatial imagery. ENVI lets you: View data sets of any size Navigate through data with a picture-in-picture window Visualize and geographically link multiple images simultaneously Create scatter plots, explore pixel signatures Utilize a layer manager to toggle & edit parameters, and more.	On-Demand GEOINT
GEOINT 7	The Intelligence Process	ENVI products are known for their diversity in terms of what types of data can be consumed, displayed and processed for the desired output. This data can be in the form of panchromatic, multispectral/hyperspectral, LiDAR, SAR and of course vector data. Many of the tools available within ENVI were developed in accordance with what the intelligence community considers most important. The SPEAR and THOR workflows are able to take an end user from the raw data to a complete product that can be highlighting lines of communication, change detection, watercraft finder and terrain classification, to list just a few.	Capabilities/Data Support Using ENVI and ArcGIS to Aid Rescue Effort
GEOINT 8	GEOINT Analysis	ENVI enables fusion of geospatial data and imagery with other types of intelligence such as signals intelligence, human intelligence, or crowd sourced intelligence for improved GEOINT. Feature Extraction is a module available within ENVI that creates an intuitive and effective automated workflow that will allow the user to extract the desired features quickly and accurately. Both spatial and spectral parameters are necessary to extract the desired feature, and the feature extraction suite of tools will allow the user to pursue example based, rule based or segment only feature extraction. The versatility of the feature extraction toolset will allow the user to outline all of the features in a scene, essential information for proper mission planning. Delineate coastlines, extract features such as buildings, roads, and bridges with a wizard-like interface from a variety of data including LiDAR, SAR, panchromatic, multispectral, and hyperspectral imagery.	Understanding Terrain
GEOINT 9	GEOINT Products and Communication	ENVI is well-suited to provide accurate GEOINT products to mission planners in a variety of forms. Intelligence briefs can be augmented with screenshots taken right from the ENVI display window and pushed to Microsoft PowerPoint. The annotation tools provided within ENVI allow the end-user to create an intelligence product with ease that can be interpreted by the commanding officer or team(s) on the ground without any more information.	Delivering GEOINT Products
GEOINT 10	GEOINT Applications	The ability to extract building features with LiDAR and Optical data will greatly aid disaster response teams and evacuations. Although you may have a geodatabase with current footprints of buildings and roads in an area, a natural disaster can change this landscape in mere seconds (Haiti earthquake). A disaster team needs to collect up-to-date information on the specified area. One way to accomplish this task is by collecting LiDAR data that can be analyzed within ENVI LiDAR to extract building features that will allow the disaster response team(s) to plan ingress/ egress routes as well as identify areas that experienced the most extreme damage to infrastructure. The viewshed analysis tool offered through ENVI is a highly efficient and effective workflow that will create terrain overlays in the form of; helicopter landing zones, aviation obstructions, drop zones, cross country mobility, and cover and concealment overlays.	Extract Building Features from LiDAR Data
GEOINT 11	Emerging GEOINT Technologies and Techniques	ENVI Services Engine is a cloud-based image analysis solution that can be deployed on virtually any existing enterprise infrastructure to give your organization access to geospatial information from desktops, mobile devices, or web applications.	Enabling Soldiers with Geospatial Applications